Any substrate should be vaccummed usually on a monthly basis unless youre setting up a planted aquarium in which case you should have a thick substrate bed for plants rooting systems.
Is gravel cleaning mandatory?
- Thread starter Cichlid_freak
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Monthly vacuuming? Your gravel must be filthy when you churn it up after a month.
Hello; Much will depend on the stocking of the tank, the feeding schedule and if feeding is light or heavy and the filtration. In a heavily planted tank with a low stocking density once a month can be all that is needed. In a tightrope tank where there may be messy eaters once a week may not keep up with the detritus buildup.
Its not too bad, i keep about half the landscape planted and only have a tigrinus cat and an irwini cat in the tank. I also run a fluval 306 and an emporer 400.
Some people might hate me or talk smack but in the last 6-7 years in one my tanks with black sand I probably vacuumed maybe 5 times. I use a power head to remove the poop from the pressure and do a water change immediately. The poop is barely even there the sand gets moved constantly by my Water flow and fish digging.
I wouldn't say mandatory but I do clean my tank. I wouldn't have a 10 year old Midas still living if I did.
I wouldn't say mandatory but I do clean my tank. I wouldn't have a 10 year old Midas still living if I did.
I vacuum mine on the weekends when I do my water changes and usually one day during the week with my Eheim vacuum.
Hello; With sand a simple way to check for buildup is to siphon out some of the sand into a bucket during a water change. I use to do this on a regular basis. I had some extra cleaned sand on hand to put back into a tank. I would then rinse the sand so it was ready to put back into a tank. If this is tried a few times, you will know for sure if there is a buildup in the sand.
Yes, vacuuming gravel is mandatory. If you don't , police will come and pick you up and lock away.
In my set up, I only count on my filters to remove 10% of the detritus, 90% of it has to be removed by my vacuuming. Solids tend to accumulate underneath rock and dead spots, and bury underneath gravel. Filters can only remove suspended solids, not solids that settled into the gravel. Solids from fish poops don't contribute nitrogen to the water, but can clog up gravels creating anaerobic zone. Vacuuming will remove anaerobic spots as evidenced by bubbling up, and restore aerobic porosity that BB thrive. Another reason for regular vacuuming is to reduce loading to my filters. I am already in need of cleaning my HOBs once to twice a week, and much prefer to just siphon out the solids in regular WC.
In my set up, I only count on my filters to remove 10% of the detritus, 90% of it has to be removed by my vacuuming. Solids tend to accumulate underneath rock and dead spots, and bury underneath gravel. Filters can only remove suspended solids, not solids that settled into the gravel. Solids from fish poops don't contribute nitrogen to the water, but can clog up gravels creating anaerobic zone. Vacuuming will remove anaerobic spots as evidenced by bubbling up, and restore aerobic porosity that BB thrive. Another reason for regular vacuuming is to reduce loading to my filters. I am already in need of cleaning my HOBs once to twice a week, and much prefer to just siphon out the solids in regular WC.
